“I have set the captives free. Captives to thinking. Captives to sin. My love- My blood breaks the shackles that hold you captive. Look at your hands. Look at your feet. My finished work has broken the chains that hold you down. Will you stay sitting in prison??? Or will you rise up and leave? Walk in My light. My Word. My Truth. Walk in My freedom. Be done with the deeds of darkness and the practices that bound you.
Follow Me. I will show you great things that you have never seen before. I will free others through you. What are you waiting for???”
Before this, I’d always thought of a captive as the same thing as a prisoner, but when going back and reading what the Lord spoke to me this morning, He prompted me to look up the difference between the two.
Captives are people who got captured. In other words, something caused them to be duped and bound. As I’m typing this, I’m seeing the image of a ball of yarn being knotted up- just as thoughts can become confusing. We need the word of God to straighten the line and untangle the knots.
We all have blind spots. My pastors talk about developing our thinking and discerning the voices we hear that speak to us- mainly because most of those voices are lies. It’s only when we read the word of God daily, that our brains and out spirits become attuned to his voice- so we can recognize when it’s him speaking to us. Then, it’s our job to acknowledge every thought and examine it to see if it lines with what God says in his word, OR if its the enemy or our flesh.
2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” It starts in and with our thinking.
The ONLY truth about you is who God says you are. And in case you need a reminder, you are his child and HE LOVES YOU SO MUCH that He gave his son Jesus to die for your mistakes, past, present, and future. When you choose to receive him into your heart and make him the Lord of your life, he will begin a work of transformation and healing inside you, beginning with your thoughts. (Cue shackles falling off and prison bars breaking).
In Luke 4, Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the captives and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
You could also read it this way:
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed and commissioned me To bring good news to the humble and afflicted; He has sent me to bind up [the wounds of] the brokenhearted, To proclaim release [from confinement and condemnation] to the [physical and spiritual] captives And freedom to prisoners.”
What bound you can put you in complete isolation, much like solitary confinement. Sure, you’re walking around and living life, but spiritually speaking, your captivity has formed a prison around you. You watch people living and enjoying life and you wonder, “Why can’t it be that way for me?” And you draw back even more, further into your cell. Until you’re cut off completely. You live a picture of what you think others want you to be so they’ll accept you, but you wonder if the acceptance is real and you still feel alone. And the loneliness is crippling. Today, the Lord is saying to rise up and step out of the prison. Walk in his word daily. Repent–>go the other way–> don’t go back to the things that took you captive. You know the things. Yes, it will be hard because you’re addicted. But if you get with other believers who are pursuing a life of faith in Jesus, if you read your Bible every day, and get help/deliverance/counseling for the things you need help to overcome, the Lord will guide you through every step. He’ll never leave you. You’ll experience peace you’ve never felt before. Shame will fall off. Guild will fall off. You’ll know and experience what true love really is. And your life and the lives of those around you will be forever changed for his glory. Because he loves you.
I don’t know you, but I’m praying for you. Rise up and walk.
Jess
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